Affordability adds to appeal of Battambang borey

Seng Saophorn

| 14 February 2017, 12:05 pm |

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Ear Veng Mong, CEO of Borey Rom Chek in Battambang. Photo supplied

Thu, 9 February 2017 Siv Meng

While many residential borey developers are poised to capture the market in Phnom Penh, Ear Veng Mong, CEO of Borey Rom Chek in Battambang city’s Rom Chek village, set his sights further afield with his residential investment plans. Post Property caught up with Veng Mong to understand the reasons behind his decision to develop a borey in the northwest region of the country.

Why did you select Battambang to develop your borey?I see that a lot of the people living in Battambang are within the medium income bracket and who are able to afford my residential housing. It also has great potential in the future because government officials, through the Ministry of Tourism, are currently concocting a plan to make Battambang province into a tourism hot-spot.

What are the unique qualities of Borey Rom chek?This borey is located in Battambang city, an area which consists of schools, universities, markets, and banks. The homes are sold at a suitable price in order to enable locals within the medium income bracket hailing from Srok Komreang, Phnom Prek and Sampov Loun to be able to afford them. The people from these districts purchase the property for their children who will likely seek education in the city. The flats in this borey are priced at $8,000 for E0 type houses, and $57,000 for E1 type houses. The flats are measured at 64 square metres.

What is the success rate of the borey to date in terms of sales?We have successfully sold about 400 units, in which 150 units were sold in 2015. Our big sell-off came in 2016 when we sold 250 units. Our success stems from a handful of factors – first, suitable pricing that enables people within the medium income bracket to afford [the units]; second, the great design and decoration of the infrastructure; third, a construction that relies heavily on quality, appearance, and 24-hour security.

When did the construction for Borey Rom Chek start? I started off with filling in the land in order to commence the construction of the development in 2004 on a 19-hectare plot of land. Then we began to build the houses in the land-filled area in 2015. At first, we only wanted to build 200 houses in the area, but after immense support from the locals, we decided to go with 500 houses.

How many stages are in the construction of the borey? When is it set to finish?I’m planning to have three stages in the construction of the borey. In the first stage, there will be 500 houses, a market and an operating modern cinema with the capacity for 300 people, since youths are the biggest money spenders. This will perhaps be put into action at the end of 2017 or the start of 2018. For the second and the third stages, I will expand further on the land by 20 hectares, in which 3,000 houses are built upon. I have already invested about $35 million; and by the end of this project, I will have spent about $50 million.

What are your plans for the future in order to ensure a long-term viable development for the residential project?I’m trying to figure out how I can set an even lower price for each unit so that many more people will be able to afford it. Right now, our two-storey house costs $57,000.However, I have another plan to build a $40,000 house that also has two storeys but with a bit of tweaking to the structure.

Are there any plans in store to add villas to Borey Rom Chek?I don’t have any intention to build villas as they cost a lot of money to build, making them ridiculously expensive, which is of no use to customers in the province.